Man dies after being tasered in Thornton

By Deanese Williams-HarrisTribune reporter

An Indiana man died late Sunday afternoon after he was tasered in south suburban Thornton, officials said.

Mark A. Koves, 28, of the 9500 block of Roosevelt Street in Crown Point, was pronounced dead at 5:44 p.m. at St. James Hospital in Chicago Heights, according to the Cook County medical examiner's office.

According to preliminary information from the medical examiner's office, Koves had been tasered in Thornton, but exactly where that happened was not immediately available.

It was also not immediately clear who tasered Koves, but when asked to comment about the report of a man being tasered in their community, Thornton police released a statement this morning about an incident late Sunday afternoon involving a naked man.

About 4:30 p.m., police were alerted to a naked man in the street near Hubbard Park by Wolcott School, the release said. When police approached, the man became "erratic and combative," the release said. Police subdued the man and took him to the hospital for treatment.

There was no one immediately available from the Thornton Police Department to confirm the identity of the naked man, whether he had been tasered, or what had happened to the man after he had been taken to the hospital.

As of 10 a.m., police had not made clear if the two incidents were connected or not.